Toxic (Denazen #2)(71)

“This is good! I can keep an eye on her,” Kiernan whispered. With a wink, she followed a very sulky Jade from the room. A few seconds later, the front door slammed closed.

“What about me?” Alex said.

Ginger flashed a red-tinted smile. She’d been drinking the Mobol’s fruit punch again. It was the only one that stained. “You’re with me, Alex.”

Without a word, they were gone, too, leaving Kale and me truly alone for the first time in days.

“You don’t want to be with me.” Kale took a step toward me.

Not be with him? That’s all I wanted to be. “It’s not that.”

“But you don’t want me with Jade?”

“Of course not!”

“Are you angry with me?”

“Why would I be angry?”

He looked genuinely confused. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

“We should get moving on this list.” I took a step back and unfolded the paper. A few seconds more, and I’d end up spilling everything. Lying to Kale was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do—not to mention I sucked at it.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “But we aren’t done.”

“We’re not done. Never.” I let the hoodie sleeve cover the tips of my fingers and squeezed his hand. “First thing on the sheet says to notify Prias Sheen about the party location.”

“Where is the location?”

“Um,” I skimmed the paper. “Looks like it’s in The Rockies.”

“Rockies?”

“It was an indoor rock climbing place. Closed down a few months ago. It’s on the very edge of town.”

“How do you climb a rock indoors?”

“They’re not really rocks you’re climbing, more like plastic. They put a harness on you, and one of the guides is there to spot you.”

He looked horrified. “Plastic rocks?”

“Forget it.”

…

We gave Prias, a woman with the ability to manipulate vegetation, the information about the party’s location and continued to move down the list. Seven names. By one in the afternoon, I was starving.

“Anything on that list about munchies?”

Kale stuffed the list into his pocket. “You’re hungry?”

“Ready to eat a small horse.”

For a second, he looked worried, then he nodded. “Expression?”

I smiled. “Expression.”

“Ginger said don’t deviate from the list.”

We’d just gotten off the bus—Kale’s favorite mode of transportation—and were standing on the corner of Main Street in front of Shaker’s Pizza. There were a dozen places we could grab a quick bite. In and out and back to work in the blink of an eye. There were only two more things on our list. Check Ginger’s post office box and notify one more person. We had time to eat.

“I’m sure she didn’t mean to have us starve. What ya in the mood for?”

“Cheese sticks,” he said, leaning close. There was a spark of hunger in his eyes—and not for fried cheese, either. He was remembering the last time we’d had them, if I had to guess. Right before all this started. He’d bitten one end, and I’d chomped the other. It was sweet. A very Lady and the Tramp moment that lead to, well, a not-so-Disney moment. An hour’s worth of them.

My heart sped, and I had to take a step back to keep from touching him. I couldn’t think straight when he looked at me like that. “Probably a better idea to get something fast and get back to the list.”

He took another step closer. I took another back. We did this until I’d backed into the side of the building.

“This is worse than anything Denazen ever did to me. To be so close and yet have so much distance. To know I could hurt you—or worse—but still want so badly to touch you.”

“I know how you feel.”

He was inches away now. Warm breath puffed softly across my face. “I know there’s something you’re not telling me. It…bothers me.”

I couldn’t deny it. Not with him looking at me like that. Standing so close. “There are things you don’t tell me,” I said, breath catching.

He frowned. “That’s not the same.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. The things I don’t tell you are in my past. They’re unpleasant.”

“In the past or not, they still affect you. They’re still part of your life.”

Spreading his arms, he placed a hand on either side of my head, palms flat against the wall. “I don’t want you to think of me at that place. The things they did. The things they made me do. I don’t tell you to shield you from that.”

“In case you haven’t noticed by now, I’m not the kinda girl that needs shielding.” I gripped his cloth-covered arms and pushed him back a few inches. “And this thing I’m not telling you? It’s something like that. Something I don’t want to tell you so I can protect you.”

“I don’t like that.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “How about a compromise? I’ll tell you half?”

He looked skeptical but nodded. “Okay.”